How chur chur is your naan?

Mumbai Tawa may not be for the swish gentry, but many of the dishes served here are worth a try, especially the Tandoori Chicken Tawa and the Churchura Naan

A strange by-product of the city's nightlife is the all-nighter dhaba-like food stall. It goes without saying that in Mumbai, given its swish gentry, the 'dhaba' is in urgent need of a makeover, which it most visibly gets in the latest entrant called Mumbai Tawa.

Tandoor Chicken Spicy Tawa

At this recently opened restaurant located opposite a nightclub in Andheri, out go the waiters who serve water with their fingers dipped in the glasses, the heavy lassis, the spicy bhurjis and cheap dosas.

Here, there are uniformed waiters who appear from nowhere the instant you look up from the table and hand you menus that boast of spicy crabs and masala lobsters, instead.

When we asked him what kind of naan the Churchura Naan was, he replied, "This naan does chur chur sound."While we waited for our order, we were able to drink in the ambience of the restaurant, which looks like a stall with an ugly collection of plastic tables and chairs on the pavement that runs alongside.

The chairs, however, are hardly ever occupied. People drive in, pick up their food and enjoy it in their own vehicles. Similar to a food court in a mall, the food is served in plastic plates with plastic spoons and forks. Using these ill-equipped items to wrestle with bony pieces of Tandoori Chicken Tawa proved cumbersome.

If you get over these needless irritants, you will notice that the gravy itself is thick and tasty. The Chicken Kati Roll, however, was not that great. Nothing like the Kati Rolls served in Kolkata, where the filling is juicy and the wrap crispy; this one was quite dry.

Unlike other Makhni Masalas, the Babycorn Makhni Masala wasn't all that sweet, which is great news. The gravy was tasty too. And when rolled into the Roomali Roti it made for a better roll than the Kati Roll itself.

The Churchura Naan, however, is every bit worth trying. It's a crispy flatbread served with a sizeable amount of butter. So much so that a patron got into an argument with a waiter: "My Churchura Naan had more butter last time."